Hughes & Kettner Basskick 303

4 years ago I wrote the second rating for this item. I used the H&K Basskick 303 now for so many years as a club box, that I can't remember how it was without it.

for this class: great.

I had this item now for many years on heavy use - it did never fail me.

the best you can buy for that money

I have the old Basskick 303. I bought it used for 150 dollars. It has inputs for passive and active basses. 3 Band EQ. 3 "matrix" settings, which are just pre-set equalization settings, the specifics of which can be accessed by downloading the manual from the H&K website (you need to look under the legacy section for this older amp). It is 100 W. 15 inch speaker. Tweeter. Balanced XLR line out for a mixer or something else.

I have a Squier Affinity Series P-Bass, probably the cheapest bass out there. The Hughes and Kettner makes it sound great. I played on many amps in the stores and in friend's houses, this amplifier sounds the best by far to my ears. Obviously, that is a subjective thing. But, I will say that I absolutely love the sound that comes out of it and will think very hard if I ever need to sell it or trade it in. I don't want to have it leave my possession.

My amp has broken down. I got it used. I took it home and after 6 months, inexplicably, the amp started cutting out to about half of its volume. Say I had it at volume 6, it would crackle a little while I'm playing and sound like volume 3. I took it in for repair. The guy couldn't find anything wrong with it, said it must be my bass. I took it home, same problem. Then one day I turned it on and plugged my bass in and absolutely no volume came out. I took it back to the store. Another guy looked at it and couldn't find out was wrong, although this time they knew it was the amp because we tried other basses and it still didn't work. Currently it is being looked at by a third repair guy, free of charge to me, and I'm hoping they will fix it. It sounds like it would be a loose connection and easily repaired, but they've had trouble. Overall, this amp has caused me problems. Maybe the newer versions are better. But the sound was great when it worked.

No warranty because I got it used. I don't know, maybe if it doesn't get repaired I'll check with the company and see if they'll do anything.

Great sound.
Wish it didn't break down.

it's a 100 W bass combo with 3-band-equalizer and a 3-position preset matrix and the usual stuff: fx in/out, balanced out etc.
That does not sound very much - but in reality it's better than all the 7- or 10-band-equalizers i tried on other combos!

Hey guys - i tried a lot of combos in this class (100 W transistor) and none did like this one.
H&K did the best job you can imagine. It sounds great for all kind of music. I prefer matrix 3, which gives my fretless e-bass a warm and full sound and enough punch to stand my gitarrero's noise ;-)

let my say one word: german engineering. it will never fail you.

o.k., as i'am from germany (in fact: the h&k headquarter ist about 35 miles from my home town), i can't tell you anything about customer support in other countries...

believe me: thats the best choice you can make in this class of bass combo. Even for acoustic double bass.

While there's no bass-amp database on Harmony-Central I'll put it in here. The basskick 303 is a very simple but most important *very* good sounding 100 watt solid state bass combo. There's the normal controls (gain, bass, mid and master volume) but it also comes with a 3-way sound matrix switch (see "sounds"). You can look at it as an multi-band equalizer with 3 presets. The rig is equiped with a 15" (Celestion?) speaker that certainly can handle the 100 watts, but also a tweeter (you can switch it off if you like). There's also a good balanced line out on the back. This 100 watt amp give you enough power for rehearsel and small gigs 'cause the speaker can handle the power comfortably. The dark-blue case is very robust and not too heavy.

The sound matrix system is very affective! I use preset 1 for bass guitar and preset 2 for stringbass. I keep the bass/mid/hi controls in 12 o' clock position and only use them for fine-tuning. Mostly manufacturers presets are hopeless, but in this case H&K did a real good job! The first preset is a normal-rock sound, good bass, fat driving mid and not too much high. The second preset is a typical slap sound, punchy ultra-low bass, littly mid and bright on the top. This preset is very usefull for acoustic (string)bass while the element mostly present much too much mid to the amp. The third preset sounds deep and warm non-bright, probably good for fretless bass and jazzy style. The 15 inch gives a warm deep not too punchy sound and the tweeter adds a nice bright sparkle to your sound. At almost maximum volume it keeps sounding good! (Trace Elliots don't!!).

Hey.. It's Hughes and Kettner.. their middle name is "reliability"! What did you think the "R" in kettneR stands for?..

Never had troubles with it. Documentation is good. The guitar Attax series is quite popular so I think the bass amps will be widely supported thru the land.

I bought it used for 600 Dutch guilders ($ 300) (in top shape). It's really simple and sounds amazing. Very good for rehearsel and club/bar gigs. Not too big and heavy, looks cool! My next bass amp will defenitely be his big 250 watt brother the 505 or newer model or 515. The new 313 model is almost exactly the same as the 303. Looking for a mid-range amp? This is a very good one and will probably keep it's value forever!